NEW YORK (AP) -- Y2K experts are just about out of business.
While still vigilant, most of them didn't expect to see serious glitches on Tuesday and they were right. Some computers did mistake Feb. 29 for March 1, but the Leap Day glitches were quickly repaired or went away on their own."We've cleared the last hurdle," said Kazim Isfahani, who monitored Y2K for Giga Information Group. "We're out in the open now."
He said today companies can now shift attention to expansions, upgrades and other tasks they delayed to remain focused on Y2K.
Early today, electric utilities in the United States and Canada said the transition was trouble-free. This morning, the banking industry also declared victory.
"No news is good news," said John Hall, spokesman for the American Bankers Association. "Even it there were a glitch or two to come, compared to the apocalyptic predictions of many people, we're very pleased."
The president's Y2K council planned a final news conference today.
"At this juncture, as we expected, we have received no reports of any major problems," John Koskinen, the president's Y2K czar, said late Tuesday. "This does not mean that no one has had a computer problem, but in many cases they are minor problems that can be fixed immediately."
Koskinen talked of a future for the Y2K crisis center, which cost the United States $50 million for staff and equipment. Under one scenario, a scaled-down center would remain to deal with Internet attacks.
"The world is becoming more interconnected, and over the next five to 10 years, that means systems generally are going to be more vulnerable," Koskinen said.
Computers have had difficulties in leap years before. Four years ago, Arizona Lottery players could not buy tickets because its computer failed to understand Leap Day.
This year is more troublesome because years that end in "00" are usually not leap years. Tuesday's was the first in 400 years.
On Tuesday, lines grew at Washington's Reagan National Airport as the extra day confused a curbside computer system used by skycaps. Passengers had to use regular check-in stations until the skycap system could properly recognize Feb. 29.
Some Caller ID and paging devices displayed March 1. Michel Daley, a Bell Atlantic spokesman, compared the Caller ID glitch to the confusion brought by daylight-saving time. The display is automatically corrected the first time callers receive a phone call.
Other glitches were reported with inventory computers at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, a Coast Guard system that archives electronic messages and a data retrieval system at Schneider National Trucking in Wisconsin.
Overseas, Montreal's tax system had trouble with a program that calculates interest rates on overdue tax bills. The system was shut down to fix the problem with only one day left to pay municipal taxes.
A computer in the Netherlands could not transmit weather information to the media, and merchants in New Zealand had trouble verifying banking transactions.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange was closed as a precaution, and the Singapore subway system rejected some riders' cards. Passport agency computers in Greece and Bulgaria issued passports with incorrect dates.
At Japan's Meteorological Agency, weather monitoring stations reported double-digit rainfall even though no rain fell, and 1,200 automated teller machines at post offices shut down.